In this Book He . . . prohibits . . . penance.

Men may be made in the image of God, yet (as the Bible presents it) the history of the tribes and peoples and nations of the world, of the Hebrews and the Gentiles, reflects at no time the order and harmony and the happiness of a divine world. It is a tale of turmoil and vicissitude, of struggle and trouble, of sorrow and loneliness and penitence, of bitter shame, and hopes lost and hearts broken.

That hour which was hidden in the knowledge of God hath come -- hasten unto Him with submissiveness and penitence. (Bahá’u’lláh